Disneyland fans stand in line to buy $20 popcorn buckets

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A visitor at Disney California Adventure carries a Toy Story Little Green Alien popcorn bucket in Anaheim on Tuesday, Apr 24, 2018. The $20 buckets are only available for annual pass holders and can be refilled for $1 until June 21. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

It wouldn’t shock anyone to discover that people are standing in line at Disneyland, but what about waiting for hours to buy popcorn?

OK, OK, it’s not just popcorn, but rather the plastic popcorn bucket that’s the draw. It’s designed in the shape of the little green alien from the “Toy Story” movie franchise and is available for a limited time only.

For the tiny sum of $20, Disneyland annual passholders can buy this limited edition bucket and refill it as often as they like for $1 each until June 21. That’s why folks are waiting in line in front of the park’s 11 popcorn carts at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, because they’re afraid the supply of buckets will run out and then they’ll be left with … nothing.

“It appears to me that the marketing people at Disney, have latched onto a gold mine,” Disney annual passholder David Brock said in an email about the popcorn bucket lines, pointing out that the resort’s most avid fans simply can’t resist anything deemed as limited edition. Disneyland says the buckets will be on sale only until May 24.

Cynthia Lopez, left, and Christian Preciado, from San Jose, carry their Toy Story Little Green Alien popcorn bucket in Anaheim on Tuesday, Apr 24, 2018. The couple said they are annual pass holders and came down from San Jose to get the limited-edition popcorn bucket. The $20 buckets are only available for annual pass holders and can be refilled for $1 until June 21. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A visitor at Disney California Adventure carries a Toy Story Little Green Alien popcorn bucket in Anaheim on Tuesday, Apr 24, 2018. The $20 buckets are only available for annual pass holders and can be refilled for $1 until June 21. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Visitor at Disney California Adventure show off their Toy Story Little Green Alien popcorn buckets in Anaheim on Tuesday, Apr 24, 2018. The $20 buckets are only available for annual pass holders and can be refilled for $1 until June 21. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A visitor at Disney California Adventure carries a Toy Story Little Green Alien popcorn bucket in Anaheim on Tuesday, Apr 24, 2018. The $20 buckets are only available for annual pass holders and can be refilled for $1 until June 21. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Now, here’s the funny part: True popcorn bucket collectors can indeed get $1 refills until June. But “a lot of people don’t want popcorn in their buckets,” according to Navy wife Mary Meacham of Camp Pendleton, who collects them.

See, the popcorn is messy. And they want their buckets pristine. So, instead, they get the popcorn in a typical box like everyone else. However, in order to get their $1 refills, they still have to bring the original alien bucket with them on every trip.

And, for people who visit the park often, that can mean a lot of popcorn.

Now, skeptics might think, “Gee, microwave popcorn from Costco in a box costs a quarter a bag. Just pop it and bring it to the park. What’s the big deal?”

But, truly, friends, you just don’t understand. It wouldn’t be Disneyland popcorn. Which normally costs $4.50 per box, without the fancy container.

“We are crazy,” Mary Meacham said, laughing. “I really can’t explain it. Except this is something we have just for Disneyland. It’s not available anywhere else (outside of Anaheim).”

Disneyland officials won’t say how many buckets they plan to offer for sale, only that they’ll be available “while supplies last.” This kind of opaqueness is what drives the frenzy. Expect to find some buckets available on auction site such as Ebay within a few nanoseconds, for those who can’t make it into the park.

Mary’s daughter, Katie Meacham, 21, of Riverside spent the night at her grandmother’s house in Long Beach, the better to get up early Tuesday morning and get to the park by 8 a.m. This meant she was able to snag a bucket early, and then be on her way back home, newly acquired treasure carefully buckled into the passenger seat of her car.

Popcorn bucket strapped into Katie Meacham’s car on its way home to Riverside. Photo courtesy of Katie Meacham.

Her mom, Mary Meacham, who grew up in Long Beach, now lives at Camp Pendleton with her Navy husband. Unfortunately, Katie Meacham couldn’t buy a bucket for her mom, because the sales were only one per annual passholder.

Lines to buy the buckets stretched down through the park Tuesday morning – the first day they were on sale – but that didn’t deter the devotees, who waited patiently, just as they may have done to buy handmade candy canes at Christmas or rose gold-colored Minnie Mouse ears earlier this year. Most recently, Disney heads lined up to buy special Dole Whip doughnuts.

Mary Meachum said she only started seriously collecting specially shaped buckets in October. So far, she has buckets in the shape of Cinderella, Dumbo, Oogie Boogie and Zero with his doghouse from “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and Pluto. She made a special trip to the park to get the limited edition Sulley bucket from “Monsters Inc.” when it became available April 13, on the first day of the Pixar Fest celebration. Now, it’s currently sold out, though more are on order, Disney officials said.

“We’re just the weirdos who like this,” she said. “There’s a whole circle of us.”

Marla Jo Fisher was a workaholic hard news reporter before she adopted two children from foster care at age 46, picked up a scruffy dog along the way and somehow managed to keep them all alive, at least so far. She now writes the Frumpy Middle-Age Mom humor column that appears in the Orange County Register weekly. Due to her status as the cheapest person alive, she also writes about deals and bargains for the Register, including her Cheapo Travel column which also runs in newspapers around the country. When she's not having a nervous breakdown, she's usually traveling somewhere cheaply and writing about it.